Amazon Kindle: What I like, and What I Don't !

KDroid · 23-11-2011, 08:52 PM

Amazon Kindle: What I like, and What I Don't !

About 2 months back, I bought Amazon Kindle from ShopYourWorld's eBay shop. Now that I have spent considerable amount of time with it, I would like to share my experience with you.

What I like about the Amazon Kindle:

The Form Factor : It's light-weight, slim and very easy to carry around. Inspite of it's B/W Display, It manages to catch everyone's attention.

The Display : The E-ink Display soothes the eyes. No Glare. No Parallax. Pictures are displayed perfectly. Believe me, reading experience on Kindle is as good (IMO, better) as reading from a printed book.

Sharp, Crisp Images

Battery Life : Thanks to the E-ink Display, on a Complete charge (that takes about 4 hours), the Kindle survives 20 days of regular use. I rarely turn on the Wi-Fi,though. With constant use of Wi-Fi, the kindle shall only last 5-6 days.

In-Built Browser : Even though this feature is experimental, it does the job verywell. You can check your emails, Facebook, etc. You can always perform a Google Search or access Wikipedia. And yeah, it also features a text-only Article Mode. It could have been better, though.

In-Built Dictionary : I often come across words that I haven't ever heard. The in-built dictionary (Oxford Dictionary of English) really proves to be helpful. I can instantly look up the definition without leaving the book.

Instant Lookup

User - Interface : The UI is very basic & simple. Navigating around is no trouble at all. You can organize your books into various collections to easily access them.

My Kindle's Homescreen

Apps : Handful of useful Applications like Calendar, Notepad, Sticky Notes, Calculator, Stopwatch, etc. are available for Kindle. Popular games like Chess, Scrabble, Hangman, etc. are also available. Since I don't have a phone (Yeah, not yet!), these apps & games really prove to be handy. Even though these apps are only available for US Customers, anyone can get 'em easily by switching his/her location to US.

Other Features I Appreciate:

Kindle has got decent speakers & you can also play MP3 files or Audio-books. It also features a 3.5mm Audio Jack. But the MP3 player has got many limitations. The order of Songs cannot be changed & you can't pickup a song you feel like listening.
The Font size, Typeface, Line Spacing &Words-per-line can be adjusted according to our need.
You can password-protect your Kindle if required.
You can buy books from the Kindle Store on Kindle itself.
By using the QWERTY keyboard, you can add annotations to text, just like you might write in the margins of a book. You can also post meaningful passages to your social networks from Kindle itself.

What I Don't like about the Amazon Kindle:

Reading in Dim-Light : Reading in Dim-light with the Kindle is pain. It is easier to read from a printed page in dim-light. Optional backlight would have proved to be a boon.

Connecting via Wi-Fi : The Wi-fi does not connects easily. Often, I need to tweak some settings or connect manually. Also, Wireless-N routers don't work for Kindle.

Debit Cards do not Work : Debit Cards do not seem to work on Amazon.com for purchasing Books, Apps, etc. However, Credit Cards work.

Reading PDFs : Reading PDFs on Kindle is pain. Sometimes, the Kindle freezes when I try to skip some pages quickly while reading PDFs. It would have been great if custom zoom was possible. There are only 3 zoom-level choices available while reading PDFs. However, switching it to landscape mode solves the problem. Still, the PDF reader needs to improve a lot.

Page-turning Buttons : In my opinion, there was no need to place page-turning buttons on both side of the Kindle. If they had just placed the Next-page button on the right side & Previous-page button on the left side, it would have been perfect.

No Custom Screensavers : The Kindle does not allows us to personalize the Screensavers. Various hacks allow you to add custom Screensavers. But, As of now, the hacks don't seem to work on the latest firmware. I just can't understand why don't they implement such a simple feature. So, I'm stuck with the boring stock Screensavers.

Text-To-Speech Sucks : The TTS feature simply sucks. I hate the lifeless voice.

What I would like to see in Future Updates:

Now that Amazon owns Shelfari, I would love to see Shelfari integrated with the Kindle.
An Improved PDF reader with Custom Zoom.
An improved Web Browser & MP3 Player.
Official PC Suite
Faster Page-Turns

__________________________________________________ ____________________

Calibre, a Boon!

Calibre, an E-book Management software available for Windows, Linux & Mac fulfills the need of PC suite for Kindle. Calibre is Free & Open-Source. With Calibre, you can manage your collection, convert E-books to Kindle's native format, etc.

I would like to thank Kovid Goyal & his team for such a beautiful piece of Software.

Calibre can automatically fetch news from websites or RSS feeds, format the news into a ebook and upload to a connected device.

.Copied from My Blog

dashing.sujay · 23-11-2011, 09:37 PM

Nice Kunal. +1

Quote:

you can't pickup a song you feel like listening.

Does this means we can't play a song of our choice?

KDroid · 23-11-2011, 09:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dashing.sujay

Nice Kunal. +1

Does this means we can't play a song of our choice?

Thank You, Sujay.

Actually You can... By continuously pressing Alt+F (Next Song) until you reach the desired one.

Liverpool_fan · 23-11-2011, 10:01 PM

Nice review.
Personally I'm interested in B&N Nook Simple Touch or the Kindle Touch.

**krishnandu.sarkar** · 23-11-2011, 10:19 PM

Nice Review.

dashing.sujay · 23-11-2011, 10:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kunal.d

Thank You, Sujay.

Actually You can... By continuously pressing Alt+F (Next Song) until you reach the desired one.

Thats crap! Its so sad the Amazon can do such blunders

d6bmg · 24-11-2011, 02:12 AM

Nice review!!
But one of the cons you have mentioned is the problem you face when skipping through pages in pdf.

Quote:

Reading PDFs : Reading PDFs on Kindle is pain.

Most of the online edition of books are available in pdf format and kindle have problem with pdf files? I didn't understand this part.

**Krow** · 24-11-2011, 04:42 AM

Most of the Kindle books are not available in PDF format, that is why Kindle is not so good at handling the PDF format AFAIK.

KDroid · 24-11-2011, 08:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dashing.sujay

Thats crap! Its so sad the Amazon can do such blunders

Kindle was never meant to be a MP3 player. Ability to play music is just one of the experimental features. You can say that the MP3 player is in beta stage. With updates, I hope, it will improve.

Quote:

Originally Posted by d6bmg

Nice review!!
But one of the cons you have mentioned is the problem you face when skipping through pages in pdf.

Most of the online edition of books are available in pdf format and kindle have problem with pdf files? I didn't understand this part.

Reading PDF is a pain because 6'' is not sufficient for reading PDFs when there is no custom zoom. The kindle occasionally freezes when I am hasty while reading graphic-rich PDFs. As Krow said, PDF is not Kindle's native format. You can convert PDFs to Kindle's native format i.e. .mobi using Calibre. But its not possible to convert comics or scanned pages. If only the Kindle PDF reader had custom zoom, it would have been perfect.

xtremevicky · 24-11-2011, 08:48 AM

Good Review.

Really a review from a user point .

KDroid · 24-11-2011, 09:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by d6bmg

Nice review!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by krishnandu.sarkar

Nice Review.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Liverpool_fan

Nice review.
Personally I'm interested in B&N Nook Simple Touch or the Kindle Touch.

If I had waited another 2 months, I would have got Kindle touch. My bad...

Quote:

Originally Posted by xtremevicky

Good Review.

Really a review from a user point .

Thank You, Everyone.

baccilus · 24-11-2011, 12:52 PM

I have a Kindle too and I agree with most of your review except one point. I think page change buttons on both the sides is a great feature. On long reading sessions I often change my hands and it's nice to be able to change pages with either hands.
And there is very little Kindle can do about the PDF format. It is a post script format and is meant to be difficult to adjust to different screen sizes.

KDroid · 24-11-2011, 01:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by baccilus

I have a Kindle to and I agree with most of your review except one point. I think page change buttons on both the sides is a great feature. On long reading sessions I often change my hands and it's nice to be able to change pages with either hands.
And there is very little Kindle can do about the PDF format. It is a post script format and is meant to be difficult to adjust to different screen sizes.

Yeah Opinions me vary on this subject. I've still not got used to the page-turning buttons. I hardly use the page-turning buttons located on left side.

**Krow** · 24-11-2011, 01:44 PM

Forgot to say that this is a nice and simple review.

I really like it.

As for the page turning buttons, they might be there for left handed people.

Voldemort · 25-11-2011, 01:39 PM

Nice Review, Kunal.

KDroid · 25-11-2011, 02:58 PM

Thank You, Voldemort & Krow.

Anush · 25-11-2011, 09:03 PM

Good Job Nice review!
(i hope you know me!

)

KDroid · 31-12-2011, 01:15 PM

Thanx Anush!

(Yeah, I remember you!)

robbinghood · 09-01-2012, 07:08 PM

thanks for the awesome post!

ferris · 11-01-2012, 02:12 PM

Very nice review. While only having used a kindle a couple of times I agree to most points here.
Everyone who is thinking about getting one will be all set after he read your review!

KDroid · 14-01-2012, 09:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by robbinghood

thanks for the awesome post!

Thank You, too.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ferris

Very nice review. While only having used a kindle a couple of times I agree to most points here.
Everyone who is thinking about getting one will be all set after he read your review!

Thanx Ferris. That means a lot!

$$Lionking$$ · 19-01-2012, 01:15 AM

KDroid - Nice review ...

a_medico · 19-01-2012, 01:56 AM

Most important pointer for those who are interested in buying - Never buy it without it's leather case with inbuilt LED light. Kindle is incomplete without it. For those who have brought it without the LED light cover, buy it ASAP for the complete experience!

I am currently using my second Kindle 3. First one lasted for a year and a half and then one fine day it didn't start. Did all the tricks mentioned on the net and I realized, it wont work. Without wasting much time, I brought my friend's Kindle, which he wasn't using.

It has become part of my life. I never read books, novels till I brought kindle. Now atleast I have started reading them.

Buy it ONLY FOR READING BOOKS. Dont expect it to be an ipad.

The display on the kindle probably cannot be matched by anything in this world, of course except, by a book page!

Cant wait though to read books by Indian authors on kindle in mobi format!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anush

(i hope you know me!

)

Quote:

Originally Posted by KDroid

Thanx Anush!

(Yeah, I remember you!)

Let me guess, Kumbh Mela?

onlytanmoy · 19-01-2012, 01:29 PM

truly a very good review there Kunal...a must read guide for anyone planning to buy the Kindle.

KDroid · 20-01-2012, 07:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by $$Lionking$$

KDroid - Nice review ...

Thank You.

Quote:

Originally Posted by a_medico

Most important pointer for those who are interested in buying - Never buy it without it's leather case with inbuilt LED light. Kindle is incomplete without it. For those who have brought it without the LED light cover, buy it ASAP for the complete experience!

It's a must have. Agree. But I don't think Kindle is incomplete without it. Only useful if you need to read in dark.

Quote:

Originally Posted by a_medico

It has become part of my life. I never read books, novels till I brought kindle. Now atleast I have started reading them.

Same here.

Quote:

Originally Posted by a_medico

The display on the kindle probably cannot be matched by anything in this world, of course except, by a book page!

Nook's Display is equally good.

Quote:

Originally Posted by a_medico

Cant wait though to read books by Indian authors on kindle in mobi format!